Oh. Mah. Gah.

To celebrate Gil‘s 38th birthday tomorrow, I thought I’d treat him to dinner this evening at a nearby restaurant with the excellent and unusual reputation of fine French dining in a casual strip mall atmosphere. Sadly, today’s snow closed the restaurant prematurely and we had to reschedule for next weekend, so I broke out the latest issue of Food & Wine to make him a birthday dessert that would take some of the sting out of his missed dinner.

“That must be some dessert!” you say. “Whatever could it be?” Oh, just a little something called Warm Chocolate Croissant-Bread Pudding.

As you know, I’m nostranger to the charms of breadpudding and I’ve often substituted croissants for bread when I’ve thrown caution (and calories) to the wind, but this is easily 10 steps beyond anything I’ve made. And it was so simple! Just a few ordinary ingredients, about an hour of my time, and Gil and I were stumbling around in a lovely chocolate- and carbohydrate-driven serotonin haze.

Preheat the oven to 350Â°. In a medium saucepan, combine the whole milk with the vanilla bean and seeds and the salt and bring to a simmer. Cover and let the milk stand off the heat for 15 minutes. Discard the vanilla bean. Add half of the chopped milk chocolate to the warm milk and whisk until smooth. Let the milk and chocolate mixture cool for 15 minutes. Whisk in the eggs.

In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, toss the croissant pieces with the remaining chopped milk chocolate. Pour the chocolate custard over the croissant pieces; press lightly to submerge them in the custard. Bake for 30 minutes, until the bread pudding is risen and set. Let the chocolate bread pudding cool slightly, then cut it into squares and serve warm, with ice cream.

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“Oh. Mah. Gah.” says it all to educated people like me and my wife (Doctor E.)

I really think that the use of the internet to promote unhealthy, fattening, unnecessary foods such as ‘Warm Chocolate Croissant-Bread Pudding’ is responsible for the untimely death of thousands of Americans.

So many people, particularly recently immigrated people, in America read posts such as this and think that if “normal” people eat this kind of stuff . . . it must be okay.

Well, it is NOT okay, and you should be ashamed for promoting such garbage.

you’ve an incredibly beautiful blog~~very minimally invasive indeed : ) i love your banner. anyways–the visible texture of the tea towels your ramekins are sitting on is brilliant, and i love how you didn’t even have to use a spoon. bravo!

um, dr? it was for a birthday, an occasion worthy of indulgence. lighten up!

i’m making a bread pudding out of pains au chocolat sometime this week too. proof em and bake em yourself ones from trader joe’s. i haven’t had dessert since xmas, and i somehow managed to drop a few lbs over the holidays. so i’m going to celebrate.

docchuck – shame on you for writing such a ridiculous comment. that is the most foolish/silly thing i have ever heard… educated people? you appear to be quite the idiot. .. i mean seriously. and for too many reasons to mention.

and i’m on a diet. i gained weight and it wasn’t from chocolate croissant bread pudding… or desserts of any kind.

and from the looks of you, you’re a fat guy. i suppose you never indulge…